272 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



may project still further, to carry the peaked rooflet 

 of a porch, whose supporting posts shall reach the 

 ground ; the wooden covering may be of sheathing 

 arranged vertically, tinted brown to harmonize with 

 the stone, and the battens of whitish gray to har- 

 monize with the mortar lines below. The profes- 

 sional men might call this very inelegant ; but I am 

 not sure that strict artistic elegance is the best quality 

 for a home in the country. The best qualities in it 

 will be those that call out most promptly a man's 

 sense of domesticity that suggest easy comfort, 

 ample room, odd loitering nooks, indefinite play of 

 fire-light and lamp-light, wide and unpretentious hos- 

 pitality. Above all things a country house, to have 

 its best charm, must look livable. I use an excep- 

 tionable word, but I think readers will catch my 

 meaning. The mere suggestion such as tightly- 

 closed shutters will give of rooms kept for show, 

 barred for weeks and months against light and air, 

 will ruin its charm. Its walls, windows, roof, chim- 

 neys, must beam with cheeriness. Its porch must 

 nod a welcome. A terrier frisking through a half- 

 opened door, a cat dozing on a balcony, a dove 

 swooping round the gable, will lend more charms by 

 odds than carefully swept gravel and a statue of 

 Diana on the lawn. There must be no stiff pairing 

 of circle against circle, or of hanging basket against 



